Vancouver Opera’s new Così fan tutte is a travel‑poster daydream that opens in a 1930s luxury hotel lobby lounge complete with Rockies vistas and vintage postcard backdrops. We meet two sisters, Fiordiligi (Jamie Groote in her stellar company debut) and Dorabella (Alex Hetherington), and two upright Mounties, Ferrando (Owen McCausland) and Guglielmo (Clarence Frazer), in tip to toe Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniforms (most certainly as Mozart always intended) who naturally, fall madly and inseparably in love all within the first eight minutes of the show.
Enter Don Alfonso (velvet-voiced bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch), a man with seemingly too much time on his hands (in the most delightful, plot-driving way), who ropes the two leading men into testing their sweethearts through disguise and trickery, to prove that “all women are like that” (the rough translation of the opera’s title), AKA cheaters.
The plot is delightfully Shakespearean: Così shares DNA with Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing with all its identity swaps, meddlers and duped lovers. And director Robert Herriot’s setup launches a witty, albeit misogynistic, exploration of love, trust, and human nature – all core themes that have made Così both controversial and beloved since it premiered over two-hundred years ago.
By relocating Mozart’s tale to a glamorous Canadian setting, the production adds a playful twist that modernizes and localizes the operagoers’ experience. Which is why when Ferrando and Guglielmo reemerge later in the first act dressed this time as suspender-sporting, bushy-bearded log drivers straight out of Salmon Arm, bringing equal parts National Film Board of Canada’s Log Driver’s Waltz and full Mackenzie Brothers energy, the audience was rolling in the aisles.
Designer Donnie Tejani’s costumes are rich and congenial, particularly the perfectly starched hotel staff uniforms juxtaposed with our two main heroines’ beautiful frocks that colourfully set them apart from the madding crowd.
Pint-sized Despina (Tracy Dahl) is the perfect agent of chaos as a mad Elvira scientist (one of her many get‑ups), wielding electrodes to everyone’s delight. Keep an eye also on comic duo Tina Chang as pianist “Trixie” and Daniel Curalli as “Larry the bartender.”
The show leaves you joyful and, in a fondly skeptical way, a little wary of men. If you’ve got young people in your life, this is the perfect starter opera: the plot is easy to track, the music irresistible, and all the jokes land keeping a seamless pace to its three-hour run time.
Only two performances remain: Thursday, February 12 at 7:30pm and Sunday, February 15 at 2:00pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Nab seats, order a glass of Okanagan bubbles at intermission, and let this all‑Canadian Così convert your opera‑curious friends.
Feature image photo credit: Vancouver Opera’s 2026 production of Così fan tutte. Photo by Emily Cooper.